The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for manufacturing containers.
It is known to package pharmaceutical tablets or pills in individual plastics or glass containers. With such containers the shape and dimensions of the internal cavity are determined by and correspond generally to the external shape and dimensions of the container. In order to optimise the size of the cavity in relation to the amount of material required for the body of the container, the container often has a cylindrical cavity and a cylindrical outer surface. However, cylindrical containers are difficult to package efficiently in bulk since the side wall of the container is not flat and so adjacent containers have wasted space therebetween. Furthermore, such containers are required to be produced in a number of sizes, each of which is adapted to carry a particular amount of the product, i.e. number of pills or tablets. This is inconvenient since each size of the container must be packed into its appropriately sized packaging, which requires a multiplicity of sizes of packaging. The requirement for a number of different sizes of containers results in different pallet sizes when the containers are transported in bulk and this can make it difficult to package different sized containers with each other. The requirements for different sized containers and packaging can give stockholding problems. Also, the outer curved surface of cylindrical containers is relatively difficult to label.
The present invention aims to overcome the above discussed problems of the prior art.